Tesla Gigafactory Berlin is producing right-hand drive (RHD) cars for India. People close to the matter told Reuters that Gigia Berlin is preparing to export Tesla vehicles to India later this year.
“The right-hand drive [Tesla] cars which will be allocated to India, [Giga Berlin has] started building them,” said sources.
Tesla cars for the Indian market will be the first time Giga Berlin produced right-hand drive cars. Usually, Tesla Giga Shanghai handles Tesla’s RHD production, exporting cars to Australia, Japan, and even the United Kingdom. Giga Berlin only produced the Model Y, hinting it might be the first Tesla car to hit India.
Tesla is expected to send a team to India later this month. The Tesla team will reportedly start searching for sites in India to build a local car manufacturing plant. The American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer apparently plans to invest about $2 billion in a gigafactory in India.
The EV automaker’s investment plans might be related to India’s new import tax rate. Last month, the Indian government announced it would slash import tax rates for car makers who invested at least $500 million in the country and started producing vehicles within the next three years.
The new import tax rates work in Tesla’s favor, considering that it has lobbied to lower import taxes in India for some time. Under the new policy, automakers can import up to 8,000 vehicles a year into the country at a lower tax rate.
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